The Friends of Israel in Action Mar/Apr 2026
Marching for Those Who Can’t
As we do each year, our Friends of Israel (FOI) ministry teams in Poland and other Eastern European countries will assemble with people from around the world for a unique and powerful memorial event called the International March of the Living. Participants will come in March to pay tribute to the 1 million Jewish people who perished at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Oświęcim, Poland, during World War II.
But rather than only mourn the evil and darkness of the Holocaust, the event will defiantly proclaim the endurance and triumph of the Jewish people. It is literally a march of the living as a testament to those who died.
Birkenau concentration camp
At FOI, it is our great joy to stand with the Jewish people at this event each year. We walk with them, condemn antisemitism in all its forms, and let them know that Christians around the world love them in the name of Jesus. We seek to be among those who demonstrate our Savior’s love by clearly saying “Never again” to the events of the Holocaust.
Margarita is a young Jewish woman from Ukraine who attended the event in Poland last year with the help of our FOI team in her country. As she said,
The names of those we lost are being kept alive in our family stories. Memory is not only about the past; it is what we preserve for the sake of the future. Special thanks to the FOI Ukraine team for your great efforts and faith to help bring me here. I represent all the Jewish people of Ukraine at this march who can’t be here because of the war. We raise our flags here to show that we stand with Israel and with all Jewish people around the world.
An elderly man from Canada named Janek also attended the march. Standing outside one of the detention blocks at Auschwitz, he pointed up at a window. With tears in his eyes, he told our team, “I was a prisoner here, and I was in this block. Behind this window we slept.” He then showed them the prison serial number that had been tattooed on his arm during his horrifying time in the concentration camp. Having grown up in Poland, Janek decided to move to Canada after World War II. This event marked his first time returning to Auschwitz. Our team was glad for the opportunity to tell Janek that Christians around the world love him in the name of Christ.
Our teams’ message of solidarity and love is deeply needed at this event. While the Jewish people continue to survive despite what was done to them, some still believe Christians are indifferent, or worse, that Christians hate them. We seek to reach out to them with the same love the apostle Paul had when he said their situation gave him “great sorrow and continual grief in [his] heart” (Rom. 9:2).
God still loves His people, and so do we.
You can support our Eastern European teams or other FOI ministries around the world. Thank you for your prayers and financial support!
Calling All Recruits to FOI Bootcamp!
The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry is launching a new and dynamic campus ministry aimed at equipping college students to stand with Israel through prayer. With antisemitism and anti-Zionism rising across universities in North America, FOI representatives Tiauna Lodewyk and Rachel Wilson saw an urgent need to respond—not with anger or arguments, but with prayerful intercession. Their vision birthed FOI Bootcamp, a four-week training program that mobilizes students to start prayer chapters on their college campuses and to become advocates for truth and compassion toward the Jewish people.
FOI Bootcamp is designed to be accessible and impactful, requiring only 30 minutes each week for four weeks to give students a strong foundation for effective, prayer-based ministry. Each of the four sessions focuses on a key element of spiritual and practical preparation:
1. Why Pray for Israel? – Understanding God’s covenant promises and the biblical call to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Ps. 122:6).
2. How to Start a Prayer Group on Campus – Practical steps for launching and leading a consistent prayer gathering among peers.
3. Jewish Ministry 101 – Learning how to engage in respectful conversations, share testimonies, and build meaningful friendships with Jewish students.
4. Multiplying and Sustaining Groups – Encouraging a culture of discipleship so that each group can grow and replicate on other campuses.
Already, this initiative is bearing fruit. Naomi McGee, an FOI intern, recently guided a LeTourneau University (TX) student through the bootcamp program. Equipped with biblical knowledge, ministry principles, and confidence, the student whom Naomi helped plans on starting a prayer group on her own campus—multiplying the ministry of FOI one university at a time.
The goal of FOI Bootcamp is not only to inform but to ignite a movement of prayer that counters misinformation and hostility toward Israel with truth and love. Every prayer group that begins represents a light on a campus that desperately needs biblical clarity and compassion for the Jewish people.
Please join us in praying that this ministry will continue to grow—reaching more colleges; inspiring more students; and raising up a generation of Christian leaders who love Israel, pray for the nation’s peace, and boldly stand for God’s truth in the midst of confusion and opposition.
You can support FOI Bootcamp and programs like it in North American Ministries. Thank you for your prayers and financial support!
Photos: The Friends of Israel Archives
